The Internet of Things refers to a network on which various devices having specific sensing, calculation, execution, and communication capabilities are deployed to acquire information about the physical world, and information transmission, collaboration, and processing are implemented by using a network, so as to implement interconnection between a person and a thing and interconnection between things. It is generally accepted that a preferred phase of the Internet of Things is referred to as machine to machine (M2M), that is, implementing free communication between machines. For a communications network (for example, a mobile cellular network), a communication service undertaken by the communications network is referred to as machine type communication (MTC).
When MTC user equipment (UE) is in an extreme scenario (for example, in a basement, or isolated by a metal housing, or isolated by a thick wall, or in a remote region), a signal of the MTC UE suffers more path or penetration losses during transmission. However, an operator expects that an operating network can still serve the MTC UE even in the foregoing extreme scenario; therefore, a coverage area of the network needs to be enhanced.
During a process of implementing the present invention, it is found that the prior art has at least the following problem exists:
When a coverage area of an entire network is enhanced in the prior art, usually, a same extent of enhancement is performed in the coverage area of the entire network. A higher extent of enhancement required for information transmission indicates that more resources (including one or more of a time resource, a frequency resource, power consumption, and a code resource) need to be used for information transmission; therefore, when a same extent of enhancement is performed in the coverage area of the entire network, for user equipment that needs only a relatively low extent of enhancement, unnecessary resource use and power expenditure arise, which causes a waste of resources.